1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer head which is preferably applicable, for example, to an ink jet printer, and a method for manufacturing thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a front view showing a construction of one example of a conventional ink jet printer head disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 47631/1988 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 93566/1981). A base component 1 is composed of, for example, glass, metal, silicon (hereinafter referred to as "Si"), and the like. On the upper surface of the base component 1, fine grooves (recessed portions) 22 are formed by a technique such as cut processing using a microcutter, and etching processing. On the surface on which the grooves 22 of the base component 1 are formed, a lid component 5 made of glass is bonded by a fluid adhesive 21 such as epoxy resin 21 adhesive coated on the projecting portion. Thus, the grooves 22 form an ink flow channel.
In the head as constituted above, the ink is discharged through the grooves (ink flow channel) 22 to adhere to the printing paper, so that printing is performed.
The ink discharge method is divided roughly into two types; an electric machine conversion method and a heating evaporation method.
When the electric machine conversion method is applied for the ink discharge method, a piezoelectric element (electric distortion element) is bonded and fixed on the upper surface of the lid component 5. Then, in such a case, the lid component 5 serves as an oscillation plate, which is distorted by the piezoelectric element to the side of the grooves (ink flow channel) 22 to reduce the volume. Thereby pressure is generated in the grooves (ink flow channel) 22 so that the ink is discharged with the pressure. Incidentally, some heads available for electric machine conversion method have a construction in which the piezoelectric element and the ink directly contact each other instead of a head which has a construction in which the piezoelectric element generates pressure in the groove 22 via the lid component 5.
In addition, when heating evaporation method is adopted as the ink discharge method, a heating element is formed at a predetermined position in the grooves 22 formed on the base component 1 before the lid component 5 is bonded to the base component 1. Then, in such a case, a bubble is generated in the ink inside of the groove (ink flow channel) by heating the heating element to discharge the ink with the pressure of the bubble.
In the aforementioned ink jet printer head, the size of the grooves 22 formed on the base component 1 must be miniaturized to enable to obtain a higher resolution and higher quality in the printing result.
In addition, recently, a multiple nozzle head, namely the head provided with a plurality of grooves 22 for discharging ink, as shown in FIG. 1, has been used as the representative style of head. It is needed that not only the size of the grooves are made smaller but also the pitch, or distance between the grooves 22, is made smaller to attain higher resolution and higher quality.
However, when the size of the grooves 22 and the size of the pitch are made smaller, there arises a problem in which it becomes difficult to bond the base component 1 and the lid component 5 by a fluid adhesive 21.
Namely, in such a case, bonding conditions for bonding the base component 1 and the lid component 5, such as the coating amount of the adhesive 21 and the bond pressure, becomes very delicate, so that a high-level technique is needed. Moreover, when the bonding conditions do not meet the actual situation, a non-cured adhesive agent 21 flows into the grooves 22 where the adhesive agent is cured to clog the grooves 22.